Shawn Logan, QMI Agency

CALGARY — The Calgary man killed when his plane crashed near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border had just taken his experimental aircraft out for its first flight in five years.

Sources told QMI Agency Gordon Tones, 75, had taken his kit-built BEDE-Model BD5B out for a test flight from the Provost Airport Monday when something went terribly wrong.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Roberta McKale said the micro-aircraft, a variant of which appeared in the James Bond film Octopussy, took off from the town some 480 km northeast of Calgary Monday afternoon and didn't return as scheduled, sparking concern among the tight-knit local flying community.

"When he didn't return, local pilots and a search party went out looking for him," she said. "Some local people located the collision site and alerted the RCMP.

The search included fly-overs by local pilots, but it was someone on the ground who spotted the wreckage.